Shaun McRae (born 21 December 1959) is a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

coach, who is a former director of rugby at

Hull F.C. Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in West Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and were ...

after a spell with the

Salford City Reds The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, who play in the Super League. Formed in 1873, they have won six Championships and one Challenge Cup. Their home ground since 2012 has been t ...

Career

Shaun McRae, nicknamed 'Bomber', was born in 1959 and began his

coaching career as an assistant for the Canberra Raiders in the mid-late 1980s. He was later appointed head coach with St Helens (1996–1998) in the Super League, where he won the Coach of the Year award in 1996. He coached his team to victory in the

1996 Challenge Cup The 1996 Challenge Cup was the 95th staging of the Challenge Cup tournament. Known as the Silk Cut Challenge Cup due to sponsorship from Silk Cut, it was the first Challenge Cup of the summer era. The tournament featured 40 teams playing 42 game ...

and

Super League I The year 1996's Stones Bitter Super League I was the official name for the 102nd season of top-level rugby league football, and the first year of Europe's new championship: Super League. It is also the first season of rugby league to be played ...

championship. His St Helens team also won the 1997 Challenge Cup. McRae was also the head trainer and unofficial assistant coach to

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

coach Bob Fulton during the

1990 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France The 1990 Kangaroo Tour was the seventeenth Kangaroo Tour, where the Australian national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) travelled to Europe and played eighteen matches against British and French club a ...

. At the end of 1998 McRae moved to the now defunct

Gateshead Thunder Gateshead Thunder may refer to: *Gateshead Thunder (1999) Gateshead Thunder was a professional rugby league club founded in 1999 in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, which competed in the 1999 Super League but then merged with Hull Sharks af ...

club. He then joined Hull in October 1999, staying there until 2004. He returned to Australia and joined the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are one of nine existing tea ...

in 2004. He returned to the NRL with a 61.1% success rate in Super League. Under McRae South Sydney finished the

2005 NRL season The 2005 NRL season was the 98th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the eighth run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen teams contesting the 2005 Te ...

level on 23 premiership points with 2004 premiers the Canterbury Bulldogs. He was replaced at the

by Jason Taylor after the 2006 season with a final winning success rate of exactly 25%. The 2006 season was seen as a transitional phase for the club, with the loss of senior players such as Bryan Fletcher,

Ashley Harrison Ashley Harrison (born 18 May 1981) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 2000s and 2010s. He played for the Gold Coast Titans of the NRL. A Queensland State of Origin representative lock forwar ...

and Scott Logan, however with the club getting the wooden spoon for the third time in five seasons, he was asked to make way for outgoing

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

coach Jason Taylor, who had been hired to replace McRae's previous assistant,

Arthur Kitinas Arthur Kitinas (born 29 November 1959) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, and coached in the 2000s. He played in the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition. A , Kitinas trialled with ...

. He moved upstairs to the position of director of rugby at the South Sydney Rabbitohs. However, in late 2006 it emerged that he would be leaving his new role, feeling that he still had much to offer as a head coach. McRae has worked on Sky Sports with Eddie Hemmings and Mike 'Stevo' Stephenson. In early 2007 he was installed as the favourite to succeed Brian Noble to become the full-time coach of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

but the job went to Tony Smith. McRae then took over from

Karl Harrison Karl Harrison (born 20 February 1964) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 2000s and 2010s. He played at representative level for both Great Britain and England, and at ...

at the

on 11 June 2007. In 2008 after failing to save the Reds from relegation from the Super League, McRae led the Salford side to triple success in the National League, winning the

Northern Rail Cup The Championship Cup, (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), and previously known as the National League Cup, was a rugby league football competition for clubs in the United Kingdom's Rugby League Championships. Although the F ...

, the League Leaders Trophy and the Grand Final and saw his team gain a licence for re-admittance to the Super League for 2009. Shaun McRae has been off with an undisclosed illness for most of the 2011 season and the club had announced that he will not be extending his contract after it finishes at the end of the current season. Shaun has since agreed to terminate employment, in a mutual agreement with the club. The

are now looking for a new head coach to take them forward in the new stadium in the 2012 season. As of September 2011, he has returned to Hull FC as director of rugby after agreeing terms with Hull FC owner Adam Pearson. McRae's arrival was followed by the unveiling of new head coach

Peter Gentle Peter Gentle (born ) is an Australian rugby league coach and former footballer who played in the 1980s. Gentle is currently the Assistant Coach at the St. George Illawarra Dragons. Club career A halfback and St. George junior, Gentle played t ...

(formerly assistant-coach of the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a joint-venture ...

), who took over from Richard Agar. Shaun McRae was involved in bringing in a number of new signings for the 2012 season, including; Andy Lynch (

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

), Brett Seymour (

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

Wade McKinnon Wade McKinnon (born 12 February 1981) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. His position of preference was as a fullback. Playing career Early years Educated at St Dominic's College, P ...

(Wests Tigers),

Aaron Heremaia Aaron Aspin Heremaia (born ) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a goal-kicking or for the Widnes Vikings in the Super League. Background Heremaia was born in Auckland, New Zealand. Playing caree ...

(

), Eamon O'Carroll (

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Northern Rugby Football Union followin ...

), Martin Aspinwall ( Castleford Tigers), Tony Martin (

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

) and

Jamie Ellis Jamie Ellis (born 4 October 1989) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the York City Knights in the RFL Championship. He has previously played for St Helens ( Heritage № 1179), Leigh, Hull FC, Castlef ...

( Leigh Centurions).

References

External links

McRae favourite for Salford roleMcRae interested in GB coach roleGB Captain Paul Sculthorpe backs Shaun McRae for roleSacked McRae stays at RabbitohsMcRae extends South Sydney stayHull confirm McRae exitRLWC 2000 – Scotland ProfileShaun McRae quotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:McRae, Shaun 1959 births Living people Australian rugby league coaches Gateshead Thunder (1999) coaches Hull F.C. coaches Salford Red Devils coaches South Sydney Rabbitohs coaches Sportspeople from Sydney Scotland national rugby league team coaches St Helens R.F.C. coaches